Wednesday, February 13, 2019

If you recall, there was one fateful summer when (G)Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, pulled a couple of scams on his cash cow customers in 2011.

First, he raised prices for customers across the board an outrageous 66%.

Then, he foisted a new DVD-only service called Trickster (oops, I meant "Qwikster") onto his new and existing customer base, forcing them to have two separate accounts if they had both streaming and DVD services from Netflix.

Both of these avarice-laden ideas hit the fan and drove the Netflix trading prices way down, and ignited a firestorm of invective on the Internet as Netflix users reacted exactly the way Hastings should have expected.

He released commentary that he believed justified the drastic price hike, but no one was buying it. His company was already in the black financially, so it just seemed like a Greed-y move to all the people who were expected to pony up a lot more dough.

Common sense would dictate that a CEO who actually cared about his customer base would have made concessions, but no. The price hike remained until the next one in 2014. The ill-fated Qwikster was abandoned after a month, but Hastings got what he wanted in the first place: a segregated user experience.

Which is to say, you only needed one account to have both streaming and DVD, but lo and behold, you could no longer look at streaming video information if you only had the DVD service, and vice versa. This of course would nudge people toward doubling their monthly payments in the interest of being able to see the reviews for all movies in the Netflix universe, both streaming and DVD.

The truth of the matter in 2011 is that the price hike was due to Starz
announcing their decision to take away all their content from Netflix
starting in February 2012. It was a lot of content, leaving a
gaping hole in Netflix offerings. Add to that Disney's decision to start
their own streaming service, and Netflix was facing a leaner period as
it negotiated new contracts with additional production companies.

In keeping with Greed Hastings's historical modus operandi, he's stuck it to his customers again, this time with the review feature.

Since anyone can remember, Netflix included the very handy ability for customers to write reviews on movies they've watched. While some viewers' bias would produce unhelpful one or five star reviews, most people were thoughtful with their ratings and comments, which meant the system was an extremely useful way to vet what you wanted on your movie queue list.

I'll go so far as to say that it was an essential tool for most Netflix users, because there are so many movies available, you have to have a way to avoid the dross in order to prevent time loss on a crappy movie.

This time around Greed began his sweeping change with small increments that he hoped would cover the real reason he removed the entire rating system.

He began by yanking out the star rating system, but leaving the ability to write reviews. This was of course unacceptable to almost all Netflix users, who used the rating system to sort their movie queues. This was step one.

After a lot of flack, Greed put the star system back. But just like "The New Coke," Hastings was merely paving the way toward his ultimate goal.

Step two was his introduction of the lame thumbs up/thumbs down system, which was supposed to replace reviews by "simplifying the process."

Then finally, step three was his original plan: completely rip the entire rating/comment system out of Netflix, which happened last year.

Now... here's the important part of this essay:

Greed's official explanation for removing the rating/review system was "declining use."

If you poll any group of long time Netflix users, you'll find that his explanation is a complete and utter lie.

This begs the question: then why did Greed Hastings risk angering his customer base by instituting such a drastic change in useful features?

Netflix does not generate revenue by member fees alone. They also have arrangements with production companies that agree to have their movies streamed on Netflix. I of course wouldn't be privy to specific details in any of those contracts, but I can guarantee you that just like the radio, the production companies' bottom lines are affected by how many times a movie of theirs is streamed.

As I recall, and forgive the anecdotal quality of this recollection, but about two years or so before Greed tore the review features to pieces, I noticed there were a lot more crap movies being released than previously. There was always crap, there will always be crap, but there was noticeably more crap than usual back then.

So do the math. Crap movies meant crap reviews, crap reviews meant less views, less views meant lower payments to the production companies. This of course pissed off the production companies, who told Greed if he didn't do something about it, they'd just take their movies and hand them to a service that did a better job promoting them.

Now it's all starting to make sense, no?

Back to the present.

Greed's attempt to cover for his blatant disregard for user experience was to institute the lame binary thumbs up/thumbs down system.

But get this: you can't actually see the amount of thumbs up or down for any movie, like you can on a YouTube video; instead, you're supposed to trust that Greed's algorithms are going to accurately pick out new movies for you to watch, allegedly based on your preferences.

Could it be that new movies suggested for you with this new system are slightly tainted by including some crap movies from complaining production companies?

Thursday, February 7, 2019

The President gave the State of the Union address two nights ago. There are those who deliberately refused to watch. They prefer to hate Trump rather than embrace the greatness that our president has been trying to restore to our country.

As with any State of the Union, milestones achieved and goals for the future were enumerated by the President. As usual, the party aligned with the President stood and clapped often. The party opposed were less enthusiastic, which is also to be expected.

Unfortunately, during a speech that greatly comforted and inspired those who love the United States, there was something about the event that made me sad.

If one takes the time to view the entire address, he or she will find numerous additional examples of this sort of stubborn resistance. To be fair, when Trump proudly mentioned the fact that the current Congress has more women than at any time in history, the women in white who were previously sitting in protest stood up and not only clapped, they briefly chanted "USA, USA" in a rare moment of shared humor.

But for the most part, many of the Democrats were non-supportive. In a free society, why is that behavior worthy of note? Because the very people who claim that Trump is Hitler are ironically not interested in compromise or unity; their sour expressions and eye-rolling bear out this fact.

The hypocrisy regarding this phenomenon is obvious: if the inspiring words from President Trump during the address were instead emanating from the mouth of Barack Obama, the same people would be leaping to their feet and cheering.

What's the difference? There is no confusion over why they resist: they hate Trump and anything associated with him. But why do they hate him?

This bottomless hatred is particularly insidious due to Trump's amazing list of accomplishments during his first two years as president. All you fact checkers looking to discredit Trump are welcome to attempt debunking the list I put together at the bottom of this essay, but you'll be wasting your time. For those who publicly claim Trump hasn't done anything of worth, get ready to eat your words.

All the accomplishments on the list were realized while a non-stop barrage of slander and hatred has poured in from the "hate Trump" media and the more Left-ian members of the Democratic party.

What inspiration does the Resistance provide? Let's recap...

Smear campaigns directed at someone of impeccable reputation (Kavanaugh) for the sole purpose of preventing a conservative Supreme Court, casting Trump as a racist dictator in order to maintain open borders, a bizarre misplaced desire to dismantle the proven effectiveness of ICE in deporting dangerous criminals, support for late-term abortions and the sanctioned murder of post-delivery infant human beings, retaining ObamaCare with all its frustrating failings, a return to higher taxes for the middle class... and the Resistance's greatest contribution to the divisive stature of our country: endless investigations into the president, a theatrical exercise in futility that's meant to characterize Trump as evil, without any actual proof of wrongdoing.

If Trump's accomplishments were attributed to any other president, that president would have already gone down in history as one of our greatest leaders. But no; Trump is instead hated for rude tweets, arrogance, unapologetic wealth, unwillingness to stay silent when attacked, deliberately misunderstood jokes, calling out violent criminals as animals, and promises to pay the legal fees for anyone who bounces paid troublemakers out the door during his rallies.

I once had an aha moment years ago: my own ignorance generated surprise when I found out the president I didn't like (Clinton) had done the impossible and balanced the national budget. While my perception of his character is still not all that stellar, I can nevertheless be honest and admit he accomplished at least one great thing worthy of praise. I also knew better than to attempt attributing it to the previous administration's residual effects.

Voters are supposed to be adults; high school is a long time ago for most of us. This isn't the student body president we're talking about. In high school, smear campaigns can be a very effective method of installing a preferred candidate. One look at the past two and half years of media coverage is far too reminiscent of those less-than-commendable days of youth.

Putting aside animosity and giving someone credit where it is due is the correct thing to do. Lack of forgiveness does no one any good and provides no justice. I have spent hours at times, trying to wrap my mind around the reality that someone who is doing so much good for our country is so hated. I may never understand why they hate Trump so much, but perhaps it's best I don't. Ingratitude of that magnitude should be left in the dark.

LIST OF DONALD J. TRUMP'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN TWO YEARS:(note: there are literally so many things Trump has accomplished in his first two years with a Republican Congress, I had to eventually stop compiling them because it was taking me way too many hours to find them and categorize them.)

LABOR:
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More people are working now than in the entire history of the country: 157 million.

Black, Hispanic and Asian American unemployment have all reached their lowest levels EVER recorded.

More women in the workforce than ever before.

More women serving in Congress than at any time in history.

Created 5.3 million new jobs. That's over five MILLION.

Added 600,000 new manufacturing jobs, despite opposing claims that it could never be done.

Unemployment has reached the lowest rate in over half a century.

337,000 construction jobs have been created since President Trump took office, and construction employment stands at its highest level since June 2008.

Killed the ISIS commander in Afghanistan and reduced their strength by 2/3rd in Afghanistan.

Sent 3 carrier battle groups to North Korea to pressure them on nuclear program, installed THADD in South Korea and Japan.

Sent Navy to south China Sea to secure sea lines.

Got the G7 countries to agree that a nation has a right to control migration and immigration.

Had G7 countries agree North Korea was a threat.

Had G7 nations agree that Trade should be FAIR as well as FREE and that nations can punish non fair trade.

Had G7 countries agree that refugees should stay as close as possible to home country and be returned when the threat is gone.

Had NATO agree to pay more and got more countries to pay their fair share of defense pact.

Have met with more than 100 of the world leaders many at the White House.

Trump Blocks Chinese Purchase of Qualcomm due to National Security.

Trump Blocks China from buying Semi-Conductor company, Lattice.

Trump orders probe of China's intellectual property practices.

Signed executive order to pull the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership thus keeping jobs here.

Many hostages are now home where they belong.

Remains of soldiers from the 1950's have been returned to their families here in the United States.

Negotiated the release of 6 US humanitarian workers held captive in Egypt.

Trump State department secured the release of American citizen Otto Warmbeir from North Korea without paying $400 million ransom.

Trump admin secured the release of American citizen, Aya Hijazifor, from Egypt Jail without paying $400 million ransom.

President Trump secures release of Pastor Brunson from Turkey.

New trade restrictions on China for unfair trade practices.

A series of sanctions against Russia to keep them in check.

Pulled us out of the lopsided Paris Climate Accord thus saving us millions of dollars every year.

Sanctioned Iran over missile program.

Would not certify the Iran Nuclear Deal.

Successful diplomatic trip to Asia.

Signed trade deal with China.

Travel BAN upheld by SCOTUS by 9-0 ruling. Extreme vetting will now become law of the land.

Travel BAN in full effect across the world.

Opening of center to defeat radical Islam in cyberspace during Saudi Arabia visit.

Gave powerful speech in the heart of Islam about the need to reform Islam and drive out the radicals.

Got the Arab nations to cut ties to Qatar for funding terrorists.

Massive historic shift in diplomatic actions in the Muslim world.

Started the assault on Raqqa in Syria to defeat ISIS on June 6th 2017.

Got Romania to up it’s NATO funding to 2.1% of GDP.

Has the Special Forces helping relieve siege in Philippines.

Rolled back Obama’s Cuban policy.

Canada promised to increase defense spending by 70%.

A direct consequence of Trump’s trip to the middle east: Gulf Countries sent Qatar a list of demands to defund terrorism, reject the Muslim brother hood so Qatar can return to the fold, Qatar has since rejected these demands setting a possible military conflict.

INFRASTRUCTURE:
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Sweeping new farm bill that provides much needed funding for farmers and ranchers, who were previously betrayed by government non-intervention while farms were being financially overburdened.

Keystone pipeline approved and signed creating thousands of new jobs expediting supply of crude to refineries or processing facilities.

Opened up oil and natural gas expansion, approving new pipelines.

Authorized construction of the Keystone and Dakota pipelines. The Dakota pipeline is up and running without harming the environment.

Repealed DOT ruling which would have taken power away from local governments for infrastructure planning.

Saw the opening of the first NEW COAL MINE IN PA in YEARS creating 70 jobs at the mine and more than 400+ supporting jobs in the community.

Ended the war on coal and caused a new mine for coal mining to open that will mine clean coal. Also put the miners back to work.

Trump Administration Set to Roll Back $900 Million in Obama-Era Offshore Drilling Regulations.

Trump Signs Order Rolling Back Environmental Rules on Infrastructure.

U.S. Oil Production Tops 10 Million Barrels A Day, First Time Since 1970.

TECHNOLOGY:
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President Trump Signs executive order Reviving The National Space Council.